After a late game interception that maybe finally closed the door on the Falcons in Sunday night's loss to the Bears, I question whether Instant Replay in the NFL is really having the right effect on the calls in the game, and here's why: The rulings on the field seem to be different than they would have been if we were still in the non-instant replay-era. Officials make calls sometimes that allow a challenge to be made instead of relying on their instinct on the field, so that they can go to a replay situation to "get the call right." Well, in the case of the interception at the tail end of the Falcons-Bears game, they did not get the call right.

The original call on the field was that the ball was fumbled, and then recovered by the Bears as the ball popped up out of reciever Michael Jenkins' hands. The officials then conferred and decided to overturn the ruling, saying that the pass was incomplete and that the ball was intercepted because of a bobble. However, had the ruling on the field as a fumble been kept, the review would have resulted in an overturned call, as the ball clearly did not come loose until Jenkins' hit the ground, thus ending the play before the fumble. But since it was ruled incomplete, the official had to first judge that Jenkins' had possession of the ball in the replay, which was not necessarily clear from the replays shown on television (however, the ESPN commentators had the ruling wrong, they stated that the receiver had to make a "football move" for the pass to be a catch, however, a player cannot make a "football move" if he is hit before he has a chance to turn his head, in fact, the final ruling was that the ball was "juggled").

The reason the officials on the field changed the call from a fumble on the field to an incomplete pass was to allow them the opportunity to review the entire play in instant replay. If they had ruled fumble, it would have taken two challenges, one by Atlanta challenging the validity of the fumble (which would have resulted in no fumble), and then a challenge by Chicago questioning the validity of the catch (which would actually have not been overturned because there was not evidence of this). Ultimately, the changing of the initial ruling on the field to allow for a single instant replay challenge to cover the entire play ended up costing the Falcons possession of the ball on what was the Falcons best drive of the game, and also best chance for the Falcons to put points on the board late in the game and get back into it. The interception essentially ended any chance the Falcons had of closing the gap in points.

Instead of relying on the instincts that are the actual reason that these officials have jobs in the NFL, officials are erring on the side of "well, maybe" and concluding on the field "let's just rule it this way, so that we can review it." Instant Replay has now created an atmosphere in the NFL that the officials believe they are not capable of making the correct instinctive call.

The Thrashers pulled off back to back wins for the seventh time on Thursday night after Marc Savard put in a game winner with 5 seconds remaining in OT against the Devils. This victory was a key win against a team that sits just a few spots (and just a few points) ahead of them in the Eastern Conference standings. But that simple fact overshadows the truth that the Thrashers are currently playing their best hockey of the season.

Over the past four games, the Thrashers have earn 7 points, with three wins and an overtime loss. Sure, the OT loss (in shootout) came against lowly Chicago, and one of the three victories came against Columbus, but the Thrashers did post 7 goals against a Detroit team that leads the Western Conference.

The Thrashers are averaging 5 goals per game over the past 4 game point streak, but the key to this streak has been consistent goaltending, something the Thrashers have had to battle with all season long. At the outset of the season, the Thrashers expected to have a rookie manning the net, but that was supposed to be top prospect Kari Lehtonen, not Michael Garnett. But after losing as many as 4 other goaltenders, the Thrashers were left relying on the rookie who was supposed to be playing in the minors all season. However, after getting a crash course in the NHL, Garnett is finally settling into his position as Thrashers goalkeeper, and is helping them earn points with regularity with some fantastic saves and quality outings.

There is no doubting the Thrashers offense can be explosive on any given night with Savard, Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa, and Peter Bondra all putting up a lot of points this season, but if they plan on making their first appearance in the playoffs this season, it will be the play of the goalkeepers, specifically Garnett right now, that allow them to consistently pick up points in the standings.

The Falcons have two premier running backs in Warrick Dunn and TJ Duckett. Dunn is the shiftier, faster guy who uses field vision and cut back ability to rip off big gains. Duckett, the bigger, powerhouse, bruising type runner who runs over people on his way to picking up positive yards. The Falcons will have to pick the right matchup to beat the Bears fast and athletic, yet not as physical defense.

The Bears have lost 4 games this year. They lost a game to the Redskins because their offense is not good. They similarly lost a game to the Browns for that reason. They lost to the Bengals because they were simply overmatched by the receivers on that team. However, I think the Pittsburgh Steelers offense matched up with the Bears defense better than any other team this season, and they handed the Bears their fourth loss this past weekend.

Willie Parker, the faster, shiftier running back ran 21 times for the Steelers, but only picked up 68 yards. Roethlisberger only threw for 173. What Pittsburgh did to beat the Bears was pound the ball up the middle with running back Jerome Bettis, the best powerhouse, bruising type runner of this generation. Bettis carried the ball 17 times for over 100 yards and two scores.

If the Falcons hope to win this Sunday, they will need to utilize TJ Duckett's power style of running at least 15 times, the way the Steelers did, and get to the pass through the playaction and bootleg, allowing Vick to roll out and get out of the pocket, where he is more comfortable throwing the ball. If they can do this, their defense can play off the momentum of Monday's victory over the Saints to keep the Bears out of the endzone. The Falcons may only need 14 points this weekend to pull of the win.

I admit, I was very skeptical when the organizing bodies who arranged the World Baseball Classic decided to throw a tournament together on such short notice. I thought they would need years of planning, but instead, it seems this tournament is just coming together nicely, with the biggest bonus of all being the number of Major League players committing to play in the event.

With as many Major Leaguers already committed as there are, it will be near impossible to avoid this tournament as it will likely dominate the media, especially since this is the first one. But baseball as a sport needs this event, and it needs this event to go well. After the IOC elected to eliminate baseball as a sport from the Olympics beyond the next summer olympic competition, baseball needed to find an identity to prove it was a world's sport, and not just the American Pasttime.

The Major League players who have committed to the event include Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr, Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, Eric Gagne, Vlad Guerrero, both of the Carlos' from the Mets, and practically every other big name Major Leaguer. This event, which will even take place in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, with the Asian countries hosting their own pool, and the Western countries plus Australia playing in either the U.S. or Puerto Rico.

With the potential for success  based simply on the fact that an uncountable number of Major League players have submitted themselves to their countries for the tournament, this event could help to land baseball on a larger world map, and maybe back into the Olympics. Maybe even one day, we'll see a Major Leaguer bring a medal home to his country from the Olympics.

The Houston Texans play the San Francisco 49ers in week 17 in a battle that will likely be to see who will get the first overall draft pick. That makes the season at least somewhat intriguing for a couple of teams who haven't sniffed playoff races since before the season started. But, if you look deeper at these two teams, I'm not sure if it truly matters to them who finishes worse off. The only thing that may matter is which USC player is taken with the first pick (assuming Reggie Bush declares himself eligible).

If San Francisco wins the draft pick war (and likely loses in week 17), they will draft Reggie Bush. I don't think that is any secret. What would be better than having a number 1 overall pick quarterback from the season before and following that up with a number 1 overall pick running back? They have a clear hole at running back, as their leading rusher has not even reached 600 yards through 13 games.

If Houston wins the draft pick war, they will be more apt to draft Matt Leinart (assuming Vince Young does stay in college like he has said, taking another year to get a Heisman). David Carr has just not panned out for Houston as of yet, and they need a fix quickly. They have a 1000 yard rusher in Domanick Davis (who is 24 yards shy of 1000 with 3 to play, I think he'll get it), and they have two pretty decent young receivers in Andre Johnson and Jabar Gaffney. Passing up the chance to draft a quarterback of Leinart's talent with the top pick, would be a woeful decision.

However, because these two teams have two vastly different needs, it might not matter who finishes with a worse record. If Houston finishes worse, they draft Leinart first, and San Francisco drafts Bush second. If San Francisco finishes worse, they draft Bush first, and Houston drafts Leinart second.

I believe Bush will come out for the draft, but if he does not declare himself eligible, I believe San Francisco makes a drastic effort to trade their draft pick for a veteran running back. Running back is their biggest hole, and behind Bush, there will not be another running back in the draft worthy of a number 1 or number 2 overall pick, and they will not draft Leinart since they already have Alex Smith.